[time-nuts] Test equipment / work benches...

[Keith Payea]

Here's a couple of items from the Make Magazine site:

Re-purposing IKEA furniture to hold rack mount gear:
http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack 

A workshop to dream about:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/dream_workshop.html

How many hours did that person work to make everything look good for the
cameras, and what does it look like in mid project?

In my own lab I didn't use Ikea furniture, but I did build a two bay wooden
rack.  90% of the gear is on slides or sliding shelves (using drawer
hardware), so the wood is not a drawback.  The sides and intermediate
upright are 2x4 frames with OSB panels glued into dados for strength.

Cheers,

	Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: John Ackermann N8UR [mailto:jra at febo.com] 
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:19 AM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Test equipment / work benches...

An idea I really like, but haven't had room to implement at my current
house, is one that a friend used.  Rather than standard 19 inch racks, he
used the heavy duty 24 inch deep, 48 inch wide, 60 inch tall shelf units
available at home improvement stores -- the ones with the heavy metal frame
and particle board shelves that are well supported around all four sides.

He had three of these units holding his test gear, with a workbench in
front.  The shelves were arranged so that the one lined up directly with the
workbench with the higher shelves spaced for either a single heavy piece or
a stack of lighter stuff.  The beauty part is that he had enough room to get
around and behind the shelves to work on the rear cabling.  Using shelves
rather than bolting the gear into racks makes it much easier to rearrange
the pieces when the mood strikes.

As for myself, I have a couple of racks, a 30x60 metal office table as a
workbench, and several wooden equipment carts with casters that a woodworker
friend built for me.  A picture of one of the carts (with a second partially
visible behind) is attached.  They are made of heavy-duty plywood with metal
frames for the shelves and metal cross braces for stabilization.  The top
shelf is tilted to allow a better viewing angle.  These have worked really
well in my fairly small space.

John